~ S P E C I A L ~ F E A T U R E ~

8 Principles of Online Promotion

from

Complete Guide to
Internet Publicity

by Steve O'Keefe

INTRODUCTION

The excerpt, below, is taken from the new book, Complete
Guide to Internet Publicity, by Steve O'Keefe. It describes
the eight principles O'Keefe considers when designing online
promotional campaigns. Based on eight years of trial and
error and over 1000 online marketing campaigns, these core
beliefs have been forged in the superheated crucible of
cyberspace.

More information about the author and the book follows the
excerpt. Please feel free to join Steve O'Keefe every Tuesday
afternoon for a free, open chat about online publicity
techniques at the Patron Saint Productions web site,
http://www.patronsaintpr.com.

8 Principles of Online Promotion

by Steve O'Keefe

What lessons can we draw from our eight-year experiment with
the commercial Internet? From a marketing perspective, and
with a view from trenches based on hundreds of campaigns,
here are the attributes I consider when designing online
promotions.

1. Transactional

For the time being, the Internet is still a transactions-
based medium. With few exceptions, it is not a good vehicle
for entertainment. People have been conditioned by television
to expect a level of quality that can't be delivered online -
- even with what passes for a broadband connection. People
expect their entertainment to contain beautiful, clear video
streams, backed with quality acting, writing, lighting,
sound, music, animation, and graphics. In some future world
where it is possible to deliver this level of quality to a
decent-size screen/monitor, most companies won't be able to
afford to produce this kind of programming. Perhaps only then
will it become apparent that most companies should stay out
of the entertainment business and focus on handling
transactions through their web sites.

Companies are spending most of their online budgets improving
the efficiency of operations, and that's the way it should
be. Rather than eliminate market intermediaries, the Internet
makes it possible to economically serve trade customers and
suppliers. Maybe eight years of experience has taught us the
value of intermediaries in organizing markets?

The broad online audience follows a grab-and-go pattern,
hunting for solutions, gathering documents, and heading home.
Retail customers prefer to shop at stores where they can not
only find good prices, service, and selection, but where they
have an account relationship. Money spent turning your e-
commerce site into an entertainment site is largely wasted.
If the Internet is a transactional medium, it makes sense to
devote your online budget to serving the transactional needs
of your business partners, and to export your promotions to
the high-traffic entertainment and information sites where
your target audience gathers.

2. Filtering

In a world where every voice can be heard, nothing is so
valuable as a good set of filters. From an unbridled
infostream, we are entering an era of filtered content again.
The public has learned to value the role of the media as
judges of worth. They gravitate to sites where the filters
are set to favor their tastes. They draw from a variety of
sources, to make sure they are getting the full story and the
right spin, but they also demand access to source documents
so they can make up their own minds about how well the media
is doing its job. Finding these key media properties, and
working together with them, is part of the publicist's
agenda.

The public will use e-mail filters to lock the vast majority
of online users out of their mail boxes. Journalists will use
filters, too, to keep from having their e-mail clogged with
the pitches of indiscriminate publicists. Filtration can be a
death sentence for publicists, forever banished from the In
boxes of the media. The trick for publicists is to learn to
court the media in a way that doesn't trigger filtration. One
method is to work through the web sites where the press
gathers. Another strategy is a return to printed publicity,
where a poorly targeted news release doesn't carry a price
tag of irrevocable shunning.

3. Targeting

Targeting is the natural reaction to filtering. Publicists
need to be careful about what messages they send and who they
send them to. If they can't impose this discipline
themselves, it will be imposed by their audiences. Better
targeting comes from knowing the detailed interests of the
people you are trying to communicate with. However, the
public is leery of revealing these details of their private
lives. It makes sense to export promotions to those sites
that are able to capture enough information about their users
to target effectively.

In media relations, publicists have to do a better job of
tracking what stories media contacts are interested in. They
need to actually read the publications journalists are
writing for, watch the programs producers put together, and
note changes in direction signaled by new jobs or job titles.

4. Layering

One of the unique hallmarks of online communication is the
layered message. The marketing chain begins with a simple
query to find people interested in a topic, with a button to
press for more information. These initial salvos have to be
brief and on target, so those not interested in one
particular message will ignore it instead of filtering you
out permanently or retaliating against you. Those who find
the message of interest should be able to easily dig deeper
for more information.

At each stage of the marketing chain, this pattern is
followed, with an easy opt out for those who are not
interested in going further, and depth of information
available for those who will follow. People drilling through
this process expect a pay off at the end. Journalists expect
to find good source documents, artwork, interview prospects,
and contact information. The public expects to find detailed,
relevant, up-to-date information.

5. Universal Access

Web surfers really don't care if you provide a variety of
viewing options for your content -- as long as you provide
the one they want. Each format decision you make can shave a
few percentage points off the audience; make enough of these
decisions, and you end up with an inaccessible promotion. The
solution is to offer alternatives to meet the needs of
different users: newsletters in text, HTML, and AOL formats;
streaming media optimized for three different speeds; artwork
displayed in low resolution for fast browsing, but available
in high-resolution for the media; web sites designed to look
appealing with any browser; promotions that don't require an
arsenal of plug-ins to enjoy. Add foreign language
translations and time-zone sensitivity to the list, and you
have a set of variables that can overwhelm any webmaster.

Universal access is another reason to partner with high-
traffic sites on promotions. It could be prohibitively
expensive for you to offer the features desired by your
target audience. Take payment and shipping options, for
example. If you buy books from publisher sites, chances are
your choices are very restricted. Go to Amazon.com, and
you'll find numerous ways to have your books shipped, and a
corresponding number of choices for how to settle the bill.
The complexities involved in serving a large -- and largely
unknown -- universal audience argue for a strategy of
focusing your own web site on a core audience of business
relations, and exporting promotions to sites capable of
serving the diverse needs of the general public.

6. Self-Protection

Every promotion has to be examined through the lens of self-
protection. People can no longer be expected to open
unsolicited e-mail, and will certainly resist opening file
attachments. You also have to assess the likelihood of a
promotion to result in criticism and/or an attack. One of the
problems I have with calculations of return on investment
(ROI), is that they seldom take into account the negative
impacts of poor promotions. What price do you put on damage
to a brand or strained relationships with consumers? Does ROI
take into account the costs of repairing computer systems
infected with viruses, or installing and maintaining security
software? Internet marketers need to do a better job of
assessing the short-term and long-term risks to their
companies from botched online promotions.

7. Sharing Value

Marketing messages by themselves are ignored online or
retaliated against. A more successful strategy is to offer
the public and the press something of value in exchange for
accepting your promotional pitch. When you approach the
media, you should offer a compelling story, and back it up
with documents, statistics, artwork, and interview subjects.
When you approach the public, you should offer content that
satisfies, in the form of articles, tip sheets, help files,
and offers of expert assistance. When you approach high-
traffic web sites, you should offer programming that will
help them attract and retain an audience.

Every company has something of value to share with the online
audience. Usually, it is expertise in the field. One of the
jobs of the publicist is to uncover the value locked inside a
company, and format it for online delivery. The knee-jerk
route is to advertise -- to pay to place the marketing
message online and hope enough of the audience responds. The
tactical route, with a more lasting impact, is to publicize -
- to create something of value and donate it to the online
audience, letting your marketing message ride along for free.

8. Partnership

As the number of web sites online explodes, the ability for
small sites or stand-alone promotions to draw an audience
dwindles. All of the characteristics of online communication
point in the same direction: the need to promote products and
services through high-traffic channels that the online
audience has embraced. Filtered content has come to the
Internet, and you need to get inside those filters by going
to sites that are trusted. My new book, "Complete Guide to
Internet Publicity" will show you exactly how to do that.

About the Author

STEVE O'KEEFE wrote the book on Internet publicity ­-
literally. He is the author of the first book ever written
about online publicity, the best-selling Publicity on the
Internet (Wiley, 1997), an award-winning guide considered
the Bible of the industry. That obsolete classic was replaced
by Steve's newest book, Complete Guide to Internet
Publicity (Wiley, 2002) -- his long-awaited magnum opus
based on over 1000 campaigns. Steve pioneered many online
marketing techniques which are now considered standard
practice, including:

Web Site Registration Campaigns

Web Site Linkage Campaigns

E-Mail News Releases

Chat Tours

STEVE O'KEEFE was one of the original writers for Internet
World magazine, wrote the "Cyber Publicity" column for PR
News (a Phillips publication), and has written "Online
Marketing" columns for several trade journals. His writing
has appeared in over 100 publications including The Wall
Street Journal, Harper's, Outside, Small Press, Salon, Curio,
NetWorth, HotWired, and has been anthologized in several
books including "Publicity Basics," by the prestigious
Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. Steve is a member
of the adjunct faculty at Tulane University where he teaches
online publicity and public relations.

STEVE O'KEEFE is Executive Director of Patron Saint
Productions, Inc., a publishing consultancy specializing in
online marketing strategy, campaigns, and training
(http://www.patronsaintpr.com). He has worked with almost
every major publisher in the United States, including: Random
House, Prima, HarperCollins, Crown Books, IDG Books,
Dearborn, 10 Speed Press, AMACOM, Heinemann, Prentice Hall,
Knopf, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's, and The New York
Review of Books.

Nobody knows more about making a splash on the Internet than
Steve O'Keefe. And no book reveals better how to do it than
this one.-- Fraser P. Seitel,
Author of The Principles of Public Relations

Steve O'Keefe's book is, by far, the most comprehensive
Internet publicity book available. It's a tool that any
business owner or publicist needs to read to conduct an
effective online PR campaign.-- Lorilyn Bailey,
CEO, NewsBuzz.com

Complete Guide to Internet Publicity is the bedrock
reference book for designing and implementing online
publicity campaigns. The book takes a "how-to" approach, with
detailed instructions for planning the campaigns, creating
the materials needed, launching the campaigns, dealing with
any problems, and measuring the results. The instructions are
highlighted with anecdotes culled from hundreds of campaigns
conducted by the author and other Internet publicity
professionals. Chapters include:

The Power of Internet Publicity

E-Mail News Releases

Online News Rooms

Discussion Group Postings

Newsletters and Direct Marketing

Chat Tours

Online Seminars and Workshops

Web Site Registration and Linkage

Contests and Other Fancy Promotions

Syndicating Your Promotions

Building an Online Publicity Operation

Complete Guide to Internet Publicity is a goldmine for
those people responsible for online publicity operations,
whether as managers, professionals, instructors or students,
including such professions as marketing, advertising, web
site design & construction, e-commerce, direct marketing, and
customer service.

The book and companion web site both include templates for
all the campaign materials described, and time-saving
resources to help locate target audiences online. This book
is essential to anyone charged with promoting a product,
service, company, person, or web site. Order your copy today.

Please join Steve O'Keefe for a free, open chat program about
online publicity techniques. Chats are held every Tuesday
afternoon from 4-5 p.m. Eastern Time at the Patron Saints
Productions web site, http://www.patronsaintpr.com.